Not a game this time, but a 'deep' minecraft map renderer. There's quite a few minecraft map renderers out there, which typically work by doing some kind of raytracing to output a single huge image. For example, McMap produces output like this:

(actual size)

Tectonicus is different, it renders maps by generating the appropriate geometry and doing a proper 3d rasterisation:(actual size)

This results in lots more detail. And since the resulting image would be too huge to view, it's carved up into sub tiles and then spliced together via the magic that is Google Maps. It's easier to see than to explain, so hit this link to see it in action:

That's an untouched minecraft spawn area, so it's actually the smallest map possible. I've tested this on our multiplayer server (which is 70k chunks rather than the examples 500) so in theory it should be able to render any sized map.

It's command line only at the moment - just run it with no options to see the command line options available.

It's still very work-in-progress, but I'm sure there's a few minecraft fans around here, so it'd be great to see a few other people's map renders. I'd also like general feedback (does it run, does it crash, does it need extra command line options to work on your system, etc.) from the more techy types around here before I start letting less techy people get their hands on it.

There's still some things I'd like to see fixed, like tools/weapons/armor getting miraculously repaired after dropping them and picking them back up, plus not being able to pick up certain items, plus combat doesn't seem to work so well (lag issues). It's playable, but it has a few updates to go before it is close to looking like single-player survival mode.

I love the game though. I wrote Markus a love letter with my bug report.

Yeah, multiplayer is still quite a bit behind single player atm. But I'm mostly in it for the building.

Meanwhile I've been expanding the number of blocks Tectonicus supports. (The interested can find a list of minecraft blocks here). I've all of the vanilla blocks (stone, sand, etc.) done, and added quite a few of the various plants (cactii, reeds, flowers) as well. Everything else needs special handling - things like ladders and furnaces which have a direction, or items like torches and fences which require custom geometry.

This is alot better than the typical minecraft mapping application! Is it going to support multiple angles (in different renders ofcourse)?Oh, and can I ask how you made it work with Google Maps? The API is only telling me about using the maps for locating and stuff, but nothing about custom maps?

Btw if you've run the minecraft client on the computer you don't need to set the path to minecraft.jar, it'll find it on it's own. Similarly if you're mapping a singleplayer world you can just do worldDir=1 (or 2, etc.).

Mads: Different angles / elevations are on the todo list, probably quite soonish. And if you want you can just look at the html source of the example map, it's really quite easy to use the google maps api.

A fellow underwater buider I see. I've gone a little nuts on our multiplayer server and have a whole network of underwater glass domes similar to yours.

Yes indeedy. It would be nice if Tectonicus would render torches on the other side of the glass, as those domes are all filled with torches. :-)

Here is a fun hint- if you make a large array of TNT to the ocean floor and set it off, you will often create dead zones where there is no water for no reason (looks like a cool vortex). You can then incorporate these with your underwater structures to make interesting areas underneath the ocean.

Also just found something cool - if you do a google search for "tectonicus map" it turns up loads of maps people have generated and put online. Yay for using an obscure latin term as an application name.